ELFs are terrorists

While it may seem like a nice premise, "preserving" the environment has many sides to it. For instance, sometimes building a dam creates irrigation that saves thousands of starving people and creates a reservoir for fish to flourish. Sometimes clearing a wooded lot to put up a hospital can be a good thing. That's why we have zoning laws. The population of the world is increasing, and the results must be dealt with not by "saving all the trees," but by proper, legal, environmental management.

We are a nation of laws.

To say that the ELF is not a terrorist organization because no has gotten killed is ludicrous [News, "Ecoterrorism: ELF 'targets' Hollymead Center," February 19, 2004]. Under that definition, the burning of empty black churches must have been mere vandalism.

There are alternatives if you want to save the land. The Nature Conservancy has saved millions of acres. You could also run for Congress or the local zoning board. You might not be able to save the whole world, but pick your own little corner of the world and get to work. Plant a tree. Clean a stream.

The Boston Tea Party was not terrorism on its face in that the people at the time were subjects and had no right to vote. The very foundation that America is built on is the fundamental right of accountability to the people. (Ask former California governor Gray Davis about this.)

When Bush's Education Secretary called the NEA [National Education Association] terrorists, he was wrong. What he should have said was that the organization's giant lobby and its practice of arm-twisting votes in Congress is an embarrassment to good teachers everywhere and a disservice to the students of America.

I only hope that the first casualty of ELF is not a veteran fire fighter who dies when a backhoe explodes as he tries to keep it from burning. It would be a sad irony for someone who dedicated their life to putting out forest fires to die because an ideological idiot wants to play with matches.